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Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Insights and Opinions: Learning How to Meet Investors

Story by Matt Crowley

How do you go about meeting investors? One key are is learning how to network. In our Insights and Opinions section this morning, Matt Crowley, a startup attorney and author of Getting in the Game: Guiding Your Startup Through the World of Venture Capital and Angel Investors, talks about networking skills.

Networking skills aren't obvious

Networking for business is a real challenge for most of us. As an experienced lawyer working closely with startups, I probably spend at least a third of my week at networking events. I am always nervous, because I am always meeting new people that I initially know nothing about.

I will tell you a quick story to make you feel better about your own networking skills.
When I started courting startups, I used Meetup.com to start an entrepreneur group for my town. I met some unusual folks but one of my favorites was a PhD in biotechnology. The gentleman had created a cost-effective way to provide research data for the giant pharmaceutical companies. He had customers, but was a one-man band, struggling to raise money.

When I first met him I asked him what he did, which seemed like a pretty simple thing. It wasn't. He told me that it would take too long to explain and I probably wouldn't understand it. That was his opening line. Imagine being a potential investor and being told that. (Continued...)